MEDAL MONDAY

My SERINA

Where do I even start?  What a great weekend!  Me and my good friend, Serina both won MASTERS in a 5k race!  She raced Friday night and I raced Saturday morning.  I asked her for a picture and she said.. “oh no, they were not good so I’m not sending them out..baahahahahah”.  She is cray cray!  She always makes the best pictures! She has a smile that is so contagious! I’m super proud of her! She’s working so very hard lately and she just keeps getting better.  Her husband fell Friday so she canceled on meeting me on Saturday morning.  

So I meet Frank at 6am.  My goal was to do another brick workout like the previous Saturday.  Serina and I had rode 20.5 miles and ran 6 miles.  We had finished our bike ride around 7:20 am so I told Frank we should ride around 25 miles and then we would finish closer to time for the 5K race I wanted to run.  I haven’t ran a single 5K this whole year!  I’ve kind of gotten out of the habit and also the fact that I’m so busy doing long distance that I just don’t have the time for 5ks.  However, I wanted to do this one.  It was a benefit for a young kid in my hometown that lost most of his hand on New Year’s Eve due to fireworks. 

Connor Roney & some of his family

They are trying to raise enough money to help him get a prosthetic hand.  We rode in on our bikes into the parking lot at 7:51 am (we got in 27 miles)! The race was at 8 am!  I barely had time to go check in, get my race number, run to the bathroom, and get in the start line.  Talk about a true brick workout. :>) 

Me and Penny waiting to start.. Thanks Frank for picture!

The Start! Me and one of my daughters friends, Jessica...She's the blonde hottie beside me. 

When the race started I took off with Jennifer and Penny.  I felt really good which surprised me.  Mid way into the first mile I looked down at my watch and we were going 7:05 pace.  I freaked out.  I also said out loud to them… “Oh no, 7:05”.  Jennifer just smiled and kept on going.  She’s super-fast!  Immediately I started telling myself… slow down… you’ll never make 3 miles at this pace…. Get it together and SLOW down.  LOL  It’s amazing how we can mind screw ourselves.  Which let me say that I’m also known for going out way too fast and then not having anything left at the end so that was also playing around in my head.  But boy I wish I had said.. “yeah girl!...you are doing great!.. keep it up.”  See we need to feed our brains with positive info.  We have to believe in ourselves! I could feel the desire burning deep in my bones but my mind was playing with me.  

I’m happy to say that when mile one beeped on my watch it said 7:50 pace.  I had slowed down slightly and still felt really good.  I was however very HOT! It was so muggy. I could see Jennifer up ahead and Penny was slightly behind me now.  I kept telling myself to keep going and try to stay where I could see Jennifer up ahead.  Mile 2 beeped and it was 8:10 pace.  WOW.. I’d done 2 miles faster than I’ve done in a LONG time!  At this point I was thinking I might beat my 23 minute PR that I had set like 8 years ago at Day in the Park 5K.

 

However the course was not clearly marked and very confusing.  George, who is normally the winner of all 5ks actually went the wrong way.  I had to stop and ask the guys in the gator which way at one intersection.  They should have been standing out pointing or either telling you as you approached, but they didn’t say anything until I stopped and then at the next intersection I hollered and asked the girl standing there and she said she wasn’t really sure.  I wanted to scream.  She said everyone is going this way so I guess that’s the right way.  Really they should put people out on the course that are there to help and actually know the course! So I turned and went on.  At this point we were around buildings (JCJC campus) and it was hard to see people that were more than 1/10 ahead of you. Lots of weaving and making turns at this point. 

Soon I could see that we were headed back to the football field to finish.  I looked down and knew I had lost a little time by having to ask questions, but I was still so far ahead of where I thought I’d be at this point!  I finished in 24:40! Not a PR, but wow what a great time! I was super excited.  And yes, I don’t think it’s bragging when you are excited about doing something you didn’t think you could do anymore.  It’s ok to feel good inside.  And this is my journal/diary.. hee hee 

Jenn and Me waiting on awards..boy it was HOT

Awards were awful.  We had to wait 2 hours! They finally told us that our names were not in the computer under the same bib number we wore!  What a mess!  They started called out awards and didn’t even call me out and I was the 2^nd female in!  I knew I had masters and they had already given Jennifer overall female and were then calling her out again as 1^st place in her age group.  It was just a big MESS. I’ve never seen awards that were that messed up!  I don’t know what happen, but I felt sorry for the race director and the timing girl! They gave out trophies instead of medals so here’s my “trophy” for medal Monday.

Jenn's mom, Ashley, Joe, Jennifer, Me and Penny with our awards finally!

It was a good brick workout and a great 5K race pace.  I felt really pumped on Saturday.  I rarely have days where I feel super good during the whole race.  I even had no pain in my hip/leg.  However, Sunday I did an easy 7 miles and the pain was back.  Yep! Talk about a downer! But I won’t give up.  You got to take the good with the bad.  I had a good 1.2 mile swim this morning and tonight I will REST.

My running buddy - TROY on our 7 miles Sunday.

Hope you also had a great weekend.  It’s back to the grind come Monday.  However, this weekend will be a 3 day weekend for me and that makes me smile BIG. :>) Happy Training! MUAH, D